Wednesday, January 27, 2016

On This Date, 1842

"The bark Astoria Mitchel[l], which sailed
hence on the 16th of January for New York with a cargo of molasses, flour,
whiskey, etc., struck on the Round shoal of Cape Hatteras on Saturday night,
January 27th, at 9 o'clock and soon after beat over the breakers and at
10 sunk. The captain, crew and passengers were all saved.

A bark (also spelled barc or barque) is a sailing vessel with three or more masts. The foremast and mainmast are square rigged (the sails are hung from spars [or yards] that are perpendicular to the ship's keel), and the mizzen mast (the aft mast) is fore and aft rigged (the sails are rigged parallel with the line of the keel).